The use of tests in personnel decisions has become an increasing legal liability for employers. The major questions raised by the courts concerning this use of tests are described. Current federal guidelines for performance appraisal systems, as established by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, are explained and traced to Title VII of…

The College Entrance Examination Board's (CEEB) internal review of its efforts to develop and implement programs to expand educational opportunities for minorities and the poor revealed that the Board had not been as successful as it had hoped. Most of the Board's efforts to ensure equal access to higher education focused on guidance programs,…

The orientation of this report is that of identifying educational projects which can be considered truly exemplary. The bulk of the report consists of a 23-step procedure for validating the effectiveness of educational programs using existing evaluation data. It is not intended as a guide for conducting evaluations but rather for interpreting data…

For comparison with tests and curriculum in the United States, excerpts from mathematics sections of university entrance examinations in Japan are presented. The impact of tests tightly tied to curriculum is discussed, and test results are summarized. Sample student responses to the examinations are also reviewed. (SLD)

At the 1989 meeting of the National Faculty of the Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST), faculty members were invited to present testimony on what they viewed as the most pressing research and policy issues in the fields of testing, evaluation, and standards. These views are expressed in this document,…

The place for standardized testing in Chapter 1 evaluation is discussed. There is substantial evidence available on the negative effects of high-stakes standardized testing, and there is a clear link between Chapter 1 requirements and the amount of testing in most school districts. Standardized testing is usually used to identify eligible…

Writing encompasses a wide range of skills, from the mechanics of punctuation and spelling to the systematic or even creative development of ideas. The higher order skills of communication necessarily involve critical thinking and problem solving, and an assessment of the writing of advanced students will be able to encompass these other higher…

These 12 conference papers offer a view of the evolving role of assessment in fostering learning and clearer signaling of individuals' skills. "Introduction" (Michael J. Feuer, Richard J. Shavelson) is followed by two papers in part I that question whether empirical evidence supports the claim of a skills mismatch in the economy: "Is There a Gap…

Normal black adolescents were given neuropsychological tests of brain damage, and the interpretation of these tests was reviewed with respect to culturally relevant data. Subjects were 50 male and 50 female black students, aged 12-13, with no history of central nervous system trauma, and average scores on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for…

This manuscript was written to provide rehabilitation professionals, and vocational evaluation practitioners in particular, with information about learning style assessment instruments. The first section of the guide consists of a literature review that focuses on such aspects of development of the learning styles concept as individual…

The Advisory Panel on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) Score Decline contends that many factors have contributed to the drop in scores on the SAT and many other tests. The research evidence and theory about three social motives that could be expected to play some role in test performance and academic functioning are examined: the motives for…

In this discussion of the use of achievement tests in evaluating Title I programs, matching content between test and curriculum is the main theme. The point is made that unless a test measures what is taught, it cannot be sensitive to whatever gains the instruction produces. Thus, if different instructional treatments have different objectives, it…

This manual suggests solutions to frequent questions of adult basic education (ABE) and General Educational Development (GED) teachers. The sourcebook is organized into six major sections. The first section, General Questions, includes a potpourri of questions. The other five categories are Reading, English, Mathematics, Social Studies/Science,…

A procedure is demonstrated for constructing tables showing, for each score on a commercial reading achievement test, the percentage of real-world materials that the testee is likely to comprehend with at least a criterion level of proficiency, the percentages of students in a local or national sample who can competently comprehend a given…

The role of a program evaluation unit in the Illinois State Educational Agency (SEA) as it attempts to provide meaningful data for a variety of audiences about projects that have extremely short life is investigated. The focus is on two programs--migrant programs and neglected/delinquent programs--funded under Title I, Public Law 89-750. A common…